Monday, March 05, 2007

It's spring break here in the Little Town. Although, it is hardly "spring" (snow predicted tonight) and even less of a "break" (I'm working every darn day!).

I did allow myself the luxury of sleeping in until 7am and having RyGuy pick me up! Which meant we did not get up to work until about 9am. And, to our surprise -- there was NO WHERE to park!!!

The spoiled, obnoxious, children-of-money undergraduates are instructed to move their SUVs and Hummers from their fraternity and sorority houses into our parking lot while they are away at some tropical island resort, getting drunk and hooking up with foreigners. But I digress ...

So, I decided, "I will write a letter". And this time, I actually did. What do you think?

(Note: the email below is slightly altered to protect those to whom I addressed it, because I am sure that you will all want to have them sleep with the fishes after my persuasive blog post)

Ms. [crazy parking lady, whom everyone fears because she thinks she actually has some sort of power of all of us. And she does. Sigh.] ,I am writing because of the spring break parking situation [near the building in which I practically live]. Specifically, the lot [near the door closest to my office and lab]. The large majority of graduate students and faculty that work in [my building] park in this lot. From my understanding, this is the only lot that graduate students are supposed to park.

Most graduate students do not leave campus for spring break {because that is my sad life}and would like to continue to park in this lot. This, however, is where undergraduate students who leave campus for break are instructed to park. The over abundance of cars makes it difficult for those of us still here to find parking spots close to the building. I am often here early in the morning and stay until after dark, which brings up safety concerns when I make the long walk to my car alone.I realize that there is nothing that can be done about this right now, but I wonder if there are any other lots that these students could use for storing their car in the future. Perhaps the large visitors lot [far away from where I want to park]? Or [farther away, near the sports complex that no one is using right now, especially not me because I am not an athlete and therefore I should be denied access to working treadmills (but that is another email I need to send ...)]?

I understand that you have a difficult job instructing students where to park, especially if snow removal will be needed over the break. But I just thought that perhaps no one has ever brought to your attention the inconvenience that is placed on those of us working in [this building high up on the hill that no one in administration seems to care about].